1 Ishmael: Wait, why am I getting you guys to help me design a board game? You’re literally aliens!
2 Ishmael: How do I know you’ll enjoy the same sense of gameplay as me? Do Martians even have a sense of fun?
3 Martian 1: You think we harrass you specifically because it suits some sort of grand strategic plan?
4 Ishmael: Okay... What do you think about this worker placement mechanic?

Worker placement is a board game mechanic in which players have a limited pool of tokens, often termed "workers", which they take turns placing on the board at various locations.

Placing a worker often triggers some action that the player may take to advance their position in the game, by collecting or spending resources, scoring points, drawing cards, gaining abilities, and so on. Players must choose what actions to take, in what order, both to improve their own position, and also potentially to block other players from placing their workers in the same locations - as often the game rules allow only a limited number of workers to be placed on each location before being cleared at the end of a round.

Worker placement has become a popular mechanic in many games since the concept first appeared in the 1998 game Keydom.